Remembering back to my time in the Republic, I recall that we had some age restrictions on who could be appointed to or elected to certain positions. This peculiar legal stipulation, though undoubtedly common in political office outside of Talossa, was an enemy of meritocracy which we in Talossa should pride ourselves with being. We should pride ourselves in choosing only the best individuals to serve as Officers of the Royal Household, and allowing our electorate to choose the best candidates for political office.

As such, we should be wary of being too strict when it comes to age restrictions in Talossa. Of course, I do support there being an age restriction on applying for membership. There are some very pertinent concerns about consent when it comes to signing up to our particular Talossan social contract that I’m keen for us to address, not least of all when there are macronational rules that we ought to follow when it comes to forums. We certainly don’t want to run the risk of falling afoul of our rather large neighbour’s laws when they have so graciously allowed us to exercise our statehood unimpeded. It’s something we ought to bear in mind with regards to the issuing of coins as well; we need to take care and act cautiously so that there can be no doubt legally that we’re in the right.

Regardless, we ought not to impose any further age restrictions on activities in Talossa. It’s an unfortunate but necessary evil that we should require ourselves to prevent people who are too young from joining in the first place – the least we can do once they get here is to refrain from restricting any limits on their participation based on their age. After all, whilst it may be rather easy to tell from citizens’ posts if they are mature or immature individuals, it is somewhat harder to determine whether their maturity is a good indication of their age. In Talossa we get some wonderfully immature old codgers, and some very seriously mature youngsters – it’s one of those quirky things about Talossa which arguably makes it great. Of course, if you’re going to appoint someone to a fairly important position and the choice is between Talossan Txec who says inappropriate things, is rude and immature, and Talossan Txosue who is polite, conscientious and mature, you’re probably going to pick the latter. You’d pick the latter and going by the behaviour of the two, I doubt you’d consider the age of Talossan Txosue.

So what does it matter how old the Talossans who apply for certain offices are? As long as we’re picking from a pool of candidates based on their merit, we needn’t fear the impending wave of immaturity that we might otherwise anticipate. Some of the cleverest and most mature Talossans I’ve spoken to also happen to be among the youngest, and we should resist any urge in the future to legalise or sanction prejudice against them. Had the Republic not amended its laws, I would never have served as its Prime Minister, and I would have tired from sitting on the political side-lines complaining loudly. Let’s not go down that route; let’s resolve to avoid unnecessary restrictions on offices in Talossa, and only limit the involvement of younger folks in Talossa when it is absolutely and fundamentally necessary in terms of consent and satisfying the legal requirements of our great neighbour.